DID BBC JOURNO STAGE HIS OWN KIDNAPPING?

Report: Johnston may have staged own kidnapping (JPost)
Palestinian security forces are investigating the possibility that missing BBC correspondent Alan Johnston staged his own kidnapping, an Arab newspaper reported Monday. According to London-based Arab language newspaper, Al-Hayat, Johnston staged his capture by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip after he received a notice from his superiors that he would be fired in the near future.

British envoy meets Haniyeh (JTA)
A British diplomat met the Palestinian Authority prime minister, raising Israeli hackles. Britain's consul general in Jerusalem, Richard Makepeace, traveled to Gaza on Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, despite London's official boycott of the terrorist group that heads the Palestinian Authority. Political sources said the meeting related to British efforts to recover a BBC reporter who was kidnapped in Gaza last month.

But Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, worried that Thursday's meeting would undermine Western efforts to isolate Hamas until it softens its stance against the Jewish state. There is concern as well that by signaling its willingness to engage Hamas over the missing journalist, Britain could spur Palestinians to kidnap Israelis in hope of effecting similar contacts with Jerusalem.

Why Foreign Journalists Are Kidnapped in Gaza - Yuval Hyman
For the last three years Gaza has been a hothouse for the kidnapping of foreign journalists. Payment for their release can reach as much as $2 million. The Durmoush family, implicated in the abduction of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, has monopolized the trend in Gaza, with the help of local photographers who assist in the kidnapping of their foreign colleagues who encroach on their territory. As of Wednesday, British citizen Alan Johnston of the BBC counted 17 days as a hostage. (Kol Hazman, Ma'ariv-Hebrew, 30Mar07/GPO-IMRA)